Baseball Bits

Great deal to get Glavine so cheap. Hopefully Tom doesn’t think he has nothing left, with all the talk of a no-trade clause being waived because he would retire instead of being traded. Good trade to get the young Houston centerfielder, because Oscar would’ve been non-tendered anyway.

From the year-end SI Kids issue. A Twins pitcher collects signed baseball cards. If a fan mails him any signed card he’ll mail them one of his signed cards. They had a guy who lives in LA who has so many game-worn jerseys that he’s opening a museum to display them. A NJ cardiologist has a game-used bat from all the members of the 500 HR club.

A web site is reviewing the worst-ever Braves. Makes me wonder if batting averages for many non-stars back in the 60’s were near the .200 level, back before the mound was lowered. You read of all those low averages, particularly for SS, 2B, and catchers. Probably even more so for second-division teams out of contention.

The Braves have hit so well the last few years you get spoiled to have a lineup with almost everyone hitting .260 or better. Some of the guys on the lists were backups who could’ve had inflated games-played totals because of pinch-hitting appearances. And how much of a factor was the hard AFC infield, oft-mentioned as the worst in baseball?

When I was at the Astros game their lineup consisted of these averages: .227 Biggio....257 Lamb....351 Pence (rookie call-up)....293 Lee....303 Loretta (not the 3B starter, right?)....232 Burke....214 Munson....230 Everitt....208 O. Palmero....216 Ensberg.

And the A’s weren’t much better….244 Kotsay....256 Ellis....287 Swisher....237 Chavez.....263 Dan Johnson....243 Crobsy....232 Cust....199 Kendall....228 Scutaro.